Germany and France are important partners in the area of digitisation. The German Plattform Industrie 4.0 and the French Alliance Industrie du Futur wish to continue improving the competitive strength of the manufacturing industries. To help themselves do so, they have developed a joint action plan.

This cooperation is closely connected with other activities right across Europe and focuses mainly on the following issues: application scenarios and example applications, technology and test infrastructure, standardisation, education, and changes in competence requirements and the organisation of work.

The foundation stone for the collaboration of these two initiatives was laid in October 2015 at a conference on digitisation in Paris, the 'Conférence Numérique', also attended by high-ranking officials in the person of the then President Hollande, Federal Chancellor Merkel, the former Ministers for Economic Affairs Macron and Gabriel and the President of the European Commission Juncker. Following that conference, the action plan was developed in a series of meetings for future collaboration in the field of digitisation. One of the early results was the exchange of example applications.

More information about the cooperation with France can be found under the following links: